One of the most impacted stories that is also a part of this book is about being woken up by the mother every day morning. In a situation of handling money and a bit of unethical variety the accountant asks his mom what he should do. When he explains the things, she says that she doesn’t understand what he says but says one thing “I don’t understand anything you say, but I want my son to be awake when I enter the room”

I was not disappointed with the book, has a lot of things on the ethics and moral side of it which are given a go by in todays corporate world.

The book is a very lucid in the sense making the subject easy. Not many jargons. Author given his extensive training experience quotes from his seminars and makes us relate to the messages he has, in his inimitable style.

To be honest his approach on the ethical and moral issues deserves praise simply because he has taken it to the logical end in terms of the context and more so he believes real issues are taken up.

The base premise is of living by design and not by default. I think we get into the default mode the moment we get into a comfort zone. Perhaps that is why we need to remind ourselves that its not the real potential that we are really better and more capable that what we think.

There are books and there will be books, this is one of the simpler ones and easy to digest if you ask me. The design of the book and the layout with easy to read format and quotes in special boxes makes it reader friendly and also make it easy to take notes.

The author does say that you can take your time reading this book, I think its like you can come to this book anytime later and that serves you well simply because it is a kind of reference material that we can look up to.

The best part is the exercises behind each of the topics and I think that works very well like – the things to do and action plan after every chapter is read.

This book is a clarion call by the author to live life by design and not default. You could always keep it simple and real and this book has the ability to make people look within and find their potential and achieve more than they think they can.

The book will be a great help for those who doubt themselves and for those who think greatness is thrust upon a few.

A person with a positive attitude cannot be stopped and a person with a negativeattitude cannot be helped.

Thanks Flipkart for the copy. This review is a part of Flipkart Sponsored Book Review Program.

For once, the don’t judge the book by its cover doesn’t work for me personally because the cover is designed very purposefully and as you read the book you will know the fitment that has come to fruition in terms of the prose and the design team which did the cover. Well that’s the designer in me before I get to review the book.

The central character of this book nick named Kitty (Ketaki Roy) has a roller coaster of a life as a journalist. You get a peek into her life during the course of her covering an incident about a death of a movie star. That forms the part of the story because what Kitty thinks it to be a small assignment that will have an impact on her promotion and money part later seems to be different than she thought. In between you have flings, romances and everything peppered in.

The author has a style of her own and the best part she does is get funny with her own antics and making us laugh in the process. Its Delhi all the way and if you have been in Delhi you would know how to empathise with what she says about Dilli.

I would probably look at it as a view of a Delhi girl’s perspective in a way and in short a profiling of how young girls there get to live their life. A millennials perspective as the cover says.

The English is straight forward and conversational and ofcourse I don’t know if its because of her background in literature that she loathes so much, nevertheless. I think the book should have got atleast some pages less say may be 20 odd pages. As for the pace the book manages to keep you going. I took three sessions to finish this book.

This is a part of Flipkart Sponsored Book Review Program. To buy your copy click here : Flipkart | Amazon

At the outset let me thank the author and her team for a very personal way that they sent the book. Yeah that beautiful mug too.

Ever since that I have been following her on twitter and other social media, its has been a great way of looking at her work.

Here let’s look at the book The Calling – Unleash Your True Self, her latest one in print, I am sure she is working on the next, the cover design was a give-away on that.

In everyone’s life there is a purpose and we live half our life not knowing if we are working towards that or if we even think about it. This book will reveal that there is a calling everyone needs to heed. The one calling that will make all the difference and gives you meaning in life. The story of Arjun a corporate honcho who comes across some surprises and ends up doing a trek to Hemakund.

Along the way he gets answers to some of the most perenially thought of pretenses that we have acquired for ourselves. Confusions that we were thinking as clear answers simply because we want to assure ourselves that everything is fine.

Even the so called meditation that we know has a different connotation at that height, if I may put it that way. The heights of the mountains are in a way an ideal to suggest that meaning might differ and you might get to know something that you always thought you know.

The best part is we want to escape from this mundane existance of family for some, career for some and literally run away from all this and expect answers to be what we are and find out the real us.

Quite often till the time we come across those moments of calling all those activities that are tagged spiritual have a totally different meaning and perspectives. Those moments come unasked and unexpected and thats the beauty of this.

The characterisation of Arjun, then Chandu and the sadhu all make for a nice reading and well to get the most of the book I think it should be read and digested and made notes of.

The author has a way with words and its quite straight to the reader and that makes this book easy and relatable to everyone at first instance. We probably don’t know what & how things will be, but if we know the true calling I am sure that will have a bearing on the way we look at this world, the way we interact and they way we live our lives.

We are all Arjuns except that we are in a different role professionally / personally but then the Calling is there for everyone of us.

A career crisis is a phase everyone goes through at some point in time of their life. The earlier one gets it, it makes you better to anticipate somethings for yourself. In this book the author Utkarsh Rai takes us through some of the most mind boggling times when we should have had the real experience of being faster, smarter and think higher.

The author has made the book into 8 parts and each one is a testament on how you can manage different sets of values and sometimes people.

Managing Self

Managing your Manager

Managing your Team

Managing your Peers

Managing your Managers Boss

Managing Managers Peers

Managing Others

Managing the Acrobatics of the future.

The book provides ample insights in giving us the solutions in the form of What can you do? Quite often it’s this question that needs to be answered and that’s how it is done.

The book quotes extensively from the experience and situations which we may come across and this holds very true in case of people to people interaction we may come across in the daily routine.

I think this is an encapsulation in a very fine format which young budding managers need to learn a bit especially about managing their managers and their peers, this I think is a very new way to look at the career prospects and the people influencing the same.

The quotes which accompany the chapters are very thought provoking and mostly application driven and has the ability to propel you to achieve what you want in your career. In hindsight when I look back I feel things could have been different if I had read something like this before early in my career and it could have really made a difference.

I think this book is a go to guide for you whenever you need to go back and check and how you need to work on the situations that you come across. It’s more about people and how we manage them to get the best out of them.

It’s a fast read in a sense but will hold your thoughts for a while and sometimes you might take time to digest and flip through to the next page.

Another aspect is the simple straight talking language that is akin to speaking straight to you, making you comfortable and talking to you in a way that makes it easy to understand and help ourselves.

Pick this book and this will be an immense help for yourself and will turn to be a go to guide for times to come.

This review is a part of Flipkart Sponsored Book review program. To pick up your copy of this book just click here

Mahabharatha – the epic unparalled has be retold umpteen number of times and we have this coming up by authors who give it a perspective that’s new and sometimes create a story in a story. Here Aditya in his foreword very clearly says its an attempt to see a modern era description that was set in the Mahabharatha days. May be this war happened and it still is happening in a different way.

The Kurukshetra war was going nowhere, and the reason was both sides were doing well for themselves. The story opens on 10th day when Bhishma is laid to a bed of arrows by his favourite grandson Arjuna with Shikandi propping up as a shield in front.

This narrative is by three characters, Yudhishtra, Radheya – Karna as we know and Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna. Aditya weaves a wonderful narration taking us through the minds of Yudhishtra, Radheya and Abhimanyu. A stark contrast in terms of their mental makeup and how they look at the war from their positions makes for an interesting read.

A fast paced story of the three days at war that actually changes the course of the result makes for a nice gripping read. The authors authority on the subject comes through the descriptions of the war field the people and the special ways they have been celebrated.

The author shows a mirror in terms of the characters trying to assert themselves even in the face of immoral and ambitious search for glory. Sometimes as they say its not the means but the end. Goaded by that there is a lot of unethical war room strategies and execution that are there, like the way Abhimanyu is killed by everyone you can think of on the Kaurava side.

The best is how the mental make up of all the three characters show up in times of crisis and how they react to the same situation and well everyone had an agenda of their own as much as we do it today.

A nice read and well presented with first person account makes it easy to go with the flow. At times you are in the battle field, at the council hall meetings and walking alongside the characters. Loved the simple and effective prose which actually makes you feel like you are being with the characters.

A classic retelling without losing the charm of the characters, riding with their ambitions, anxieties, fear and sometimes with a hope for the war to be over. Things could have gone either way and this 13th day sets the course for the next 5 days when the war is completed. If you are fond of mythology and its retelling, you will need to read this book.

Buy the book here on Flipkart http://www.flipkart.com/thirteenth-day-story-kurukshetra-war-english/p/itme7cenauf5zxg3?pid=9788129134752

Indian Mythologies have this rare distinction that the more you rewrite the more livelier they become and its one of the innate characters that they continue to be retold and perhaps this will continue for the days to come.

Each in its own context and setting and more perhaps suited to the times that the author is in the retelling takes the course with impact of the generation that it touches and communicates. That way this book will be remembered for the retelling of the kind that has never been attempted before.

This is a book to be read – a retelling redefined perhaps. You knew Mahabharatha, now know it from a parts of the forts that you have never been to. The graphic and gory retelling, and sometimes walking and talking through the minds of the characters sends you a chill down your spine, quite often we took them for granted without any investigation.

The scene is set for the war and how the allies on the part of Pandavas and Kauravas get ready to fight it out and the way it ends.

Aptly titled and well written with details, this book is sure to get you riveted to the last page. The way the book takes turns to reach into the mental realms of all the characters as they speak out their mind and sometimes something else being so graphically described takes you so much inside the forts and places that they walk and talk about.

You will feel the eerie sounds when you actually read through the pages and feel those moments along with the characters.

I loved the naming and the family tree part and its time I go back to the first two books to make it complete.

Its not just the war but what goes into the minds of each of the characters that’s the best part. I am sure the author has done a great deal of mind reading the characters and bringing them alive with such precision requires a tactful reading and delving deeper into the psyche and also the setting of the events that take place in the epic of all times.

I must mention that the author Krishna Udayasankar has taken us on a treacherous journey and the machinations of the characters. The portrayal of Govinda is an absolutely unravelling of the mystique behind his political wizardry is just an example.

I am sure this Mahabharata re-imagined and retold in many ways will be a game changer for many people to look at the epic and draw inspiration for retelling.

So if you come across this book take it and you will be happy that you did. You will watch the Mahabharata’s war stream live in front of you word by word.

A fast paced and yet a deep dive in great sense, this will leave you with scenes of the war right infront of your eyes. The narrative and graphic storytelling ability of the author will keep you awake to finish the book.

Personally I feel this riveting and fast paced a story telling of the Mahabharatha probably was destined.

Great writing, narrative, story telling all in a package that you will not skip a beat through the book.

For once apart from the Books Review category this forms a part of Politics in my blog!

A nice classic if I can call it for the start-up community and the entrepreneur in you. I know the author as the quintessential blogger and this is a nice compilation of the stories that have impacted our life. With the impact of internet and the mobile only going to go higher in our lives we need to know these companies from the inside out. And this book achieves that.

The story and the narration of the companies and the business model and the technology being laid thread bare makes you appreciate the nuances with ease and may be kindle the entrepreneur in you.

After reading this I felt we need more stories like this should be introduced to the young people so they can take the risks and look at the entrepreneurial journey at an young age.

The author has taken the 3 Cs – Commerce, Content and Connectors as the theme and woven a nice story around the customer and the company in question. This will surely be an eyeopener for the readers in a way they are introduced to these companies.

She has got it with the three Cs. Obviously we have more players and I am sure the constraint in the space would be the reason for not getting others in here. Nevertheless it has achieved the purpose.

I would recommend this to any one who is thinking about entrepreneurship especially in the technology domain. Though the times and technologies have changed, the inherent spirit of the entrepreneur and the way he goes about will remain the same.

I am sure you would be able to find your calling or niche and also sometimes make judgement about your business plan when you read this book. You would easily find the answers at ease.

I don’t want to write in with each companies specified here but I am sure these will serve as lessons on both sides, success becuase they have and for us how not to do it.

One thing I must mention is that Indiblogger is also a part of this stories under the connectors. Thanks Indiblogger for sending in this book!

A nice read and highly recommended one at that – startups and those starting up, the time you invest here in this book will be doubly rewarded.

The book in review is a fantastic read to know oneself and how super human everyone is if they can harness the power they innately have in them. This book is a result of the authors experiences with healing people who otherwise never thought healing or cure was a possibility. It takes a whole lot of inner transformation for individuals to get them to heal themselves of the problems their body faces and resurrect themselves as happy selves.

The author in his simple and a very direct conversational style of writing makes you very sensitive to what he wants you to feel. This is a work book in essence and if you could do it the way , you will already feel positive vibes around you and may be look like you have lost some weight. It has a soothing effect on you, as you start to identify that we can heal ourselves. As much as you start appreciating the fact that you can love your body it should start responding to your touch or your sensory perceptions.

The story teller in the author is a clear winner as we are led through the parables to drive home the point.

The idea of the body as the residence of divine would make all the difference and that in effect would change the way we look at the way body reacts.

These seven magical ways are very practical doesn’t need you to be religiously inclined to adopt these methods into your life. There are very practical ways of guided meditation which are very effective even in psychological terms tuning you to think positively and sense the feeling of healing in you.

You would be thankful to the world and me too for having read this book, it has a visionary zeal to it in terms of talking to your inner soul. The language makes it so easy to read and digest everything the author wants to convey.

I might just add here for those looking at weight loss technique how an integrated approach to your living can make losing weight such an easy job. I think this can be a big USP for the book with so many diet and weight loss programs making a queue for the big bucks.

A nice read and you will be feeling a lot less heavy that’s a bit sublime when i say that and it will reflect in your physical weight too.

Thanks to Yawar and the publishers for sending me the copy. It did take some real time to digest and apologies for the delay in the review due to some unforeseen circumstances!